Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Naps and such

I have been working extremely hard to get Kevin to take good naps and stay in bed at night after I put him in his room. These sleeping times have become increasingly stressful, irritating and at some points madening. So this week I have been experimenting...

Monday: I put both boys down at noonish, Adam fell asleep but by 1 Kevin was throwing a fit and woke poor Adam up so I took Adam out and Locked Kevin in. Yes I locked the door. He screamed bloody murder as if he were being torchered with sharp objects for upwards of about 45 minutes. But that night he went to bed with no problem because he really did not want me to put the locks back on.

Tuesday: Separate naps. I put Adam down at 10ish and as soon as he woke up around 12:30 I put Kevin down and he slept for 2 1/2 hours also. That worked but doesn't give me a second to myself (much needed)

Wednesday: I put both boys down at 10:30 because Adam was tired and Kevin hardly slept last night and had us all up through the night. Adam fell asleep Kevin cried at the door, (making progress...he did not come out of the room) But he was not asleep either. So I went in and laid with him in hopes of him just falling asleep...ha ha ha. He didn't sleep, but I did for about 40 minutes so maybe that is all I can ask for.

I am not sure what to do, he definitely still needs his naps b/c he turns into the kid no one wants by about 1 p.m. whining and crying about every single thing that crosses his path. Maybe I will just have to do separate naps but at some point Adam will not be able to honestly go down for his nap at 10, as it is he is tired again by about 3 but bedtime is at 7 and luckily Adam can handle the less sleep and he sleeps in in the mornings until 8-8:30. Kevin is up at 5:30-6ish.

6 comments:

I wish I had suggestions for you. My kids have separate rooms for right now, so I don't have the challenge of putting them together and hoping they sleep. Luckily, they usually are both sleepy in the middle of the day, so I usually get about an hour and half to myself. Maybe if you try putting on some soft music or doing your bedtime routine that would help. If nothing else, bribery works! I know, you shouldn't do that with kids, but truly, it can be a great help. It got Micah potty trained!

Dear Tanya,Perhaps if you promised a small reward for one nap a day, that might help. Maybe, doing a craft or something with Kevin after he takes a nap. I don't know, maybe choosing something that Kevin likes to do, as a reward. I know that naptime and bedtime should be a pleasant time. War doesn't promote pleasant sleep, (but you already know that). Maybe a whirling something over his bed so high that he couldn't reach it that makes a tinkling sound would relzx him so that it would put him to sleep. Hope you find a way to solve your problem. Love you,Aunt Grammy

I love the look of your new blog design. I'm sorry I had to ditch out on you this morning...due to naps of all things! What a dilemma, don't look forward to the day I'll be dealing with the same thing (highly doubt we'll have a house with separate rooms for all by that time)~HUGS~good luck, and do lots of night-time girl time!

Okay - I don't know if I can solve the nap problem b/c so far I have very good nappers, BUT Tyler is getting out of bed at night and driving us crazy. Sounds like Kevin is doing that too. We have to discuss strategies.

The only advice I have is what has worked for me and that is pushing one child or the other (or both) to work toward a common quiet time (hopefully naptime) in the house. Make quiet time noon - 2pm (or whatever works for you guys). If Kevin won't sleep, tell him he needs to have quiet time for at least an hour - even if it's on your bed with books. You can even get him his own alarm clock so he knows when he can come out, and make a sticker chart or some sort of reward system for staying in his (or your) room and being quiet and resting. Hopefully the rest will turn into a nap... maybe not right away, but eventually.

Personally whenever I try to put my kids down too early, hoping they will sleep, it backfires - like when you put Kevin down at 10am. I read that most kids give up their naps sometime around 3 - 5, so our days are numbered, but I think there always need to be quiet time in the house so everyone can have a break from each other. I know some friends who had their kids listen to books on tape for quiet time, but the kids were older so that might not work yet.

I hope any of this makes sense. Let us know what finally works. And most importantly I hope YOU get more sleep!!

For myself, I basically stopped letting Tallulah take morning naps. She would sleep in the morning and Josie would sleep in the afternoon and it gave me no break. So, even though Tallulah COULD take a nap around 10:30/11am, I totally push her until after lunch. So both girls go down about 12/12:30pm. That way, I get a solid almost 2 hours of a break from both of them. They both go to bed well, so I'm not sure what to do as far as making them sleep. If Kevin is over naptime, then I think you just have to try Beth's technique of quiet time. I don't know. I think it's all hard and exhausting.

Could you go back to putting Adam down in your room? We can't get Liam and Molly in the same room, so other than that I don't know. To keep Liam in bed, every time he got out I would pull out the portacrib and drop him in there. Then I would tell him that if he couldn't stay in bed he would have to sleep in the crib. I only had to do it a few times, but it worked. But I guess it only works if he can't climb out like Liam!

navy

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